I first heard about this book, under the slightly different title of Diego and the Steam Pirates, over four years ago. My good friend Carl V. Anderson visited the booth of Armand Baltazar at Spectrum Fantasy Art Live 2. I had asked him to pick up some artwork for me, and he got a print from this book along with a ton of other things. [see my blog post on Broken Bullhornhere].

At the time, the book was still partially written and all the artwork was yet to be completed, but I expected – guessed – it would be a graphic novel of a hundred pages or so. How wrong I was, the book is so, so much more.

Nicely bound with heavy stock throughout, filled with beautiful artwork. The story caught my imagination, but it was the artwork that initially pulled me in, all those years ago, and the book exceeds my greatest expectations by far.

The critics say:

“This epic tale from Baltazar, is not only wildly imaginative and attention-grabbing, it’s downright beautiful: more than 150 full-color photorealistic art pieces bring the characters and setting to life. A series opener that conveys a true sense of wonder and excitement on every page.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Intricate illustrations, stunning in their lush coloring and quality, are liberally interspersed. [C]inematic dialogue, glossy plot twists, and movie-ready illustrations will likely make readers feel they’ve had a theatrical experience.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“The stunning artwork is the real star here. Sure to be popular with middle school fantasy readers.” — School Library Journal

The author Armand was born on Chicago’s North Side, not far from the famed Wrigley Field. After attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Armand began a visual storytelling career in feature animation as a background artist, visual development artist, and art director for DreamWorks Studios, Walt Disney, and Pixar Animation. He currently resides in Northern California with his family, creating the art and stories for the epic adventure series Timeless. There is a lot of fascinating information about him and his methods at the end of a Google search.

I can’t emphasize enough how terrific this book is. Listed by the publisher as Juvenile Fiction, for my money it’s just fine for adults, too. I loved it. I sincerely hope the promise of a series is fulfilled, and soon. Thank you for this wonderful book, Armand Baltazar.

Glad to have you out of hibernation, Richard! I miss my daily stops here. Will we see more of you soon or are you going to crawl back into that cave like a cranky old bear? Hope all is well with you and Barbara and that Mother Nature has been kind to you (and your garden) over the past few months.

I just had to break silence to share my thoughts on this book, Jerry. While I do feel like that cranky old bear, I’m not sure I’ll be back to the Monday (Current Reading), Wednesday (occasional reviews or thought pieces), and Friday (Forgotten Books) schedule. I do have a lot of current reading to catch everyone up on, as I’ve been reading steadily during my hiatus.

Weather has been tolerable, we got rain, now it’s cooling down into the 40s at night and 60s daytime and the trees are turning. Lots of Fall year work to do!

Good to be back, but see my response to Jerry, above, it’ll still not be full time.

I’m sure we would have, but it’s too far away, especially since I’m a non-flyer anymore. The problem is we only go to the ones “out west” and you guys usually only go to the ones in the Midwest or East or South. Well, that’s the way it goes. It certainly would have been nice to see, talk with, Louise Penny. We had breakfast with her and her husband in San Francisco at the Bouchercon, and it was very nice.